Rus' raiding in the Caspian region and the Norman theory

Arabian travelogues, runic inscriptions and Icelandic sagas reflect that the Scandinavians had been in contact with the eastern Mediterranean by way of the great rivers of Eastern Europe. There is not a shadow of doubt about the Viking presence in Russia, but the dates of their emergence in the East are disputed.

The main problem is the identity of a people called Rus' in the Primary Chronicle (Povest Vremennykh Let), which dates from early 12^th century. The Primary Chronicle constitutes what might be called the official history of the Scandinavians in European Russia. It states that in 859 a group of Varangians (Scandinavians) attacked the Finns and East Slavs of Northwestern Russia and forced them to pay tribute. They were overthrown in 862, but the Finnic or Uralic and Slavic peoples could not govern themselves and consequently invited another group of Varangians, called Rus' and led by a certain Rurik, to come and rule over them: [19, p. 138] «Our land is great and rich, but there is no order in it. Come to rule and reign over us» [20, p. 59]. Three brothers were selected: Rurik, the eldest, established himself in Novgorod while the second, Sineus, settled in Beloozero (Vologda region) and the third, Truvor, in Izborsk (Pskov region). On account of these Varangians the district of Novgorod became known as the land oftheAwA [20, p. 59-60].

Rurik began to extend his rule from Novgorod to other lands in Northern Russia. After Rurik's death, reportedly in 879, his successor, Oleg, led an expedition which seized control of Kiev as well. Novgorod in the North and Kiev in the South were brought under the Rurikids, the dynasty of Rurik, who then launched a series of campaigns which eventually expanded their tributary domain from the Polish frontiers to the upper Volga [19, p. 138]. Rurik's descendants had Norman-sounding names for several generations, or names that had both a Norse and a Russian form like Igor - Ingvarr, Oleg - Helgi, Gleb - Gu61eifr, Iakun - Hakonr, Rogvolod - Ragnvaldr [22, p. 112].

There has been considerable controversy about the origins of the word Rus. It has been alternatively suggested that the word is derived from the Finnish Ruotsi, or from the old Norse rodr (a rowing-way), or again that these men came from Roslagen in Uppland. The Uralic peoples of Northwestern Russia presumably used this term for the Scandinavians who appeared in their lands, and the East Slavs transformed it into Rus'. According to Frog & Saarikivi it was a «Finnic ethnonym for Scandinavians more specifically, for the Svear (later attested in all Finnic languages; cf. Fi. Ruotsi [`Sweden'], Ruotsalainen [`Swedish'])» [6, p. 77]. Later, Rus' was applied both to the Kievan state and to those Scandinavians and non - Scandinavians who became rulers there, and ultimately came to include all the peoples of that state. The word Variagi I Varangians was also used for the Scandinavians in the East, but many argue that it appeared later than the term Rus', and was used primarily to designate those Scandinavians who entered the military service of the Rus' princes and the Byzantine emperors [19, p. 134-135].

The Vikings who came to Russia for trading purposes developed two major routes there, one along the Dnjepr and the other along the Volga. The former is described by the Primary Chronicle'. «Starting from the Greeks, this route proceeds along the Dnieper, above which a portage leads to the Lovat. By following the Lovat, the great Lake Ilmen is reached. The river Volkhov which flows out of this lake enters the great Lake Nevo (Ladoga). The mouth of this lake opens into the Varangian (Baltic) Sea» [20, p. 53]. The towns of Kiev, Smolensk, Novgorod and Staraja Ladoga are situated along this route, and there Viking archaeological materials have been accumulated. Along the second route to the East, large towns had long been established and controlled by the rulers of the Bulgars and Khazars in the region of the Volga, who charged a toll on traders.

Rus' raiding in the Caspian region

For over 200 years - from the тЫ-8^ш to the mid-lO¹¹¹ centuries - the Turkic Khazar Khaganate ruled from the Aral Sea in the East to the Dnepr in the West, and from the Caucasus in the South to the bend of the Volga in the North. The overland routes were under the control of Turkic Khazars. Their capital was Atil (or Itil) at the mouth of Volga. The Volga Bulgars, who adopted Muslim faith in the 920s, had their capital situated at Bulgar, which was one of the most important fur-trading centers of the period. Fine products were bought from the North to meet the demand for them in Byzantium and the Caliphate, and traders came from as far as Arabia and the Orient along rivers and caravan routes. It was an age of military campaigns and clashes, which reflected a struggle for control of land and domination over trade routes [3, p. 271],

Rus' people travelling to the East created good relations with Khazars, and the passage to the other lands was generally purchasable for a 10 percent tax on the Rus' goods [7, p. 49]. Khazars had ruling elites called the khagan and the beg. The khagan was a ruler of a khaganate (empire) while the beg was responsible for the administration of the military and civilian affairs [18, p. 77]. In his dissertation, Thorir Hraundal notifies that the title of khagan for a leader ofAwAis mentioned in several historical sources hke Annals of St Bertin (s.a. 839), Ibn Rustah in c. 900 and HududAl - Alam from the late 10^th century [9, p. 10]. Presumably the ties between the Rus' and the Khazars were so close that the leaders of the Rus' people at this time were using the Old Turkic title.

Until recently there was not much focus on the question of the Northmen's presence in the Caspian region during the 9^th-l 1^th centuries. However, a number of medieval Arabic and Persian chronicles provide information about these voyages. Among Azerbaijani scholars, there are different theories about the origin of Rus' people plundering the Caspian region. Some researchers believe that they were Slavic people, while some researchers claim that they were a people of mixed ethnic origin: Turks, Slavs and Scandinavians. The Azerbaijani Arabist Farda Asadov [Asadov 2014] and Naila Valikhanli [Valikhanli 1974] identify the Scandinavian emergence in the Caspian region as during the 9^tll-10^th centuries in their publications. In her book, Valikhanli refers to Al-Masudi and writes: «Rus people are comprised of different tribes. One of these groups called the `urmans' (Normans) travelled to Rum (Rome), Constantinople and traded with Khazars» [23, p. 56].

Although this book was published in the Soviet period, the author states that the Arabic sources refer to Scandinavians (Normans) while using the `Rus' term [аг-Rus]. According to some publications from the Soviet period, the Rus who came to the Caspian region in the 9^tll-12^tl1 centuries were Slavs and had no relations with Scandinavia [1, p. 2]. According to historian Huseynov's History of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan had trade relations with the Southern Slavic world. He also gives further information about the Rus' incursions to the Caspian region and Barda [10, p. 147-148]. However, he does not give any information on the ethnic identification of the Rus in his book. Therefore, the readers of this history book encounter challenges as Russian people are called rus in the modern Azerbaijani language.

The Rus' people made deals with Khazars to raid Muslim towns in what is now Azerbaijan. During the reign of Hasan ibn Zaid, ruler of Tabaristan (864-884), the Rus' sailed into the Caspian Sea and unsuccessfully attacked the eastern shore at Abaskun (the port on the southeastern shore of the Caspian Sea in the Middle Ages) [7, p. 69]. In 909, sixteen ships are reported to have pillaged the island Abaskun and in 910 the Rus' burned the town Sari in Mazandaran [2, p. 370]. The Rus' raid on the southern coastline of the Caspian Sea in 913 (or 914) was described by the Arabic writer and historian Al-Masudi [15, p. 416-418]. According to Masudi, the Rus had «five hundred ships, every one of which had one hundred men on board… They entered the estuary, and, continuing their voyage up the river (Don), as far as the river of the Khazar (Wolga), they went down this river, passed the town of Itil, and entered through its mouth into the sea of the Khazar» [15, p. 417]. In order to secure a safe passage through the land of the Khazars they wrote a letter to Khazarіммімммммімммммміммммміммммммімммммімммммімммммміммммміммммммімммммімммммімммммміммммміммммммімммі

khagan Veniamin and promised them half of their booty [2, p. 370]. According to Artamonov, Khazars agreed to let the Rus through their land in order to avoid acquiring new dangerous enemies [2, p. 370]. The Rus' attacked the Jurjan region around Abaskun, the Naphta Country, as well as the town of Ardobil in Aderbijan [15, p. 417-418]. Artamonov argues that they used the islands in the Caspian Sea as their base¹ [2, p. 370]. Across the sea they raided at Baku (Babikah), the coast of the Naphta Country [15, p. 418]. Everywhere they took what they could, including women and children as slaves [15, p. 418-419; 7, p. 132]. Asadov writes that people living on the shores never possessed ships and the lack of their experience resulted in their crush and defeat [3, p. 275]. The news of their outrages preceded them as they headed homeward and, at the mouth of the Volga, despite the promise of the Khazar king, a large army of Muslim Khazars^, enraged by the crimes committed against their fellow Muslims, met and defeated the Rus' [13, p. 182-183; 15, p. 419]. According to Masudi, the number of killed Rus was about 30,000 [7, p. 133].

Thirty years later, in 944, Rus penetrated deep into today's Azerbaijan using the river Kura. They captured Barda, the ancient capital and rich trade and cultural center of the Caucasus. Various sources describe huge demolitions in Barda committed by the Rus, with ruins as a result (Yakubovskiy refers to Ibn-Khaukal, Abu-l-Faraj, Makdisi; [26, p. 80]). The repeated raids and plundering paved the way to the decline and decadence of the craftsmanship and trade of the city [8, p. 123]. Barda lost its importance as the country's political and administrative center. Its economic role declined and itjust remained as a center of religion and culture [8, p. 130].

In 944, the people of Barda were allowed to live in peace and to practise their Muslim faith as long as they agreed to recognize the Rus' as their overlords [26, p. 65]. But people were against the latter and broke the peace; when they also refused to evacuate Barda, the Rus' began to kill them [13, p. 183; 26, p. 66]. The Rus' raiding in Barda was reported by Ibn Miskawayh, a contemporary Persian scientist and historian. The Arabic historian Al-Asiri (died in 630/13^th century) also provided accounts on the raids of 943/44, however he was not a contemporary of this event. According to the structure of these accounts, such as the sequence of the description of events as well as the arrangement of details, Yakubovskiy assumes that Al-Asira might have been influenced by Ibn Miskawayhs' recordings [26, p. 64]. Ibn Miskawayh reports that tribes called Rus attacked Berdaa («Bards» in Azerbaijani), the pearl of the Caucasus, due to the wealth of its nature and resources. He narrates: «In the year of Hijri 332 (943/944) an army of the nation called «аг-Rus» approached Barda, occupied it and took people as prisoners» [8, p. 123].

Then the writer describes the characteristics and manners of Rus' people: «Rus are militants. Traditionally each of them carried weapons and most of the handicraft tools such as axe, saw, hammer and others. They used spear and shield in the battle. As a spare arm they took sword, dagger, cudgel, weapons like sword with them» [8, p. 123].

Both Ibn Miskawayh and Al-Huseyni state in their works that, after capturing Barda, the Rus' people fell ill by eating different kinds of fruits and an epidemic spread among them, therefore they left the city [8, p. 125; 26, p. 67].

Moses of Kalankatuk writes in his History of Albania (10^th century) that three thousand strange and foreign people called Ruzik from the North got across the Caspian Sea and suddenly approached the capital of Albania, Barda. No one could resist them. They carried away riches by putting people to the sword. Women of the city wanted to poison Ruziks, but the Ruziks became aware of this plan and mercilessly killed women and children. After staying in Barda for six months, they destroyed the city and returned to their country with lots ofbooty [12, p. 333].

In his work Gulustani-Irem [`The heavenly rose - garden'], first published in 1841, the Azerbaijani historian and writer A.A. Bakikhanov analyses Rus' attacks on Caspian coasts and Barda, as well as the reasons and results of the assaults, based on the works of Al-Masudi and Al - Asira. He states that both authors discuss the same attack [4, p. 75-76]. Bakikhanov also refers to the Azerbaijani eminent poet Nizami (12^th century), who in his poem to Alexander the Great (Iskandarnamof mentions the Rus' attacks on Azerbaijan and depicts one of the Rus' chiefs, referred to as Kontal [4, p. 47].

Russian historian Artamonov refers to V.V. Bartold [Arabskie isvestiya о rusax, 20-23, 44] and writes that interestingly the Rus' attacks to the East coincide with their peace agreements with Byzantine. As an example, he draws attention to the raid of 913 which happened after Oleg signed the treaty with Byzantine in 911. While commenting on the Barda attacks in 944 Artamonov writes: «Igor recruited the Varangian mercenaries for the second raid to Constantinople, however during this raid he only reached the banks of Danube where the Byzantines opted for diplomatic action met them with peace proposals. After accepting them Igor decided to award his warriors by allowing them to plunder Bulgars. And the rest of the warriors with the same intention headed to the Caspian Sea» [2, p. 380].

Both raids in the Caspian region in 913 and 944 prove that in the 10^th century Khazaria, which provided the Rus' with safe passage, was not strong enough to resist the Rus people. Therefore, Svyatoslov attacked the Khazars in 965 and destroyed their Empire, capturing their main towns - Sarkel on the Don and Itil on the Volga. He intended to establish himself on the lower Volga and to erect a new empire [25, p. 28].

In 421/1030, the Rus' reappeared in the Caspian region with 38 ships and they undertook a raid on Sharvan [16, p. 114]. The Sharvanshah Minuchihr b, Yazid (the shah of the city) fought them with his army near Baku where the Sharvan army lost the battle [1]. The Rus' sailed up the river of Kura and possibly reached the confluence of the Kur and Araxes (Araz) (the river that marks today's border between Azerbaijan and Iran) [16, p. 114]. The ruler of Arran (Ganja), Fadl b. Muhammad was in conflict with his son Askariya, who was planning an uprising against his rule in Beylagan. However, by hiring the Rus', Fadl's eldest son Musa was able to besiege his brother Askariya [16, p. 115]. V. Minorsky also suggests that when the Rus' left Arran, they went through the western parts of the Caucasus, which were controlled by Byzantines, to Tmutorokan, the short-lived Russian principality at the entrance to the Azov Sea [16, p. 115].

In 1032 the united military forces of the Rus', Savirs and Alans attacked Shirvan and plundered the city [1]. On the way back in al-Bab amir Mansur b. Maymun occupied the passes, assaulted them and captured their booty [16, p. 115-116].

According to Alakbarli's paper [1], the victory of the Shirvanshah Akhsitan I on the Rus' in 1175 is described in a poem written by contemporary Azerbaijani poet Khaqani Shirvani [«Tohfat-ul Iraqein» meaning: Gift of two Iraqs], The poem illustrates the defeat of the Rus' near Sari Island in the vicinity of Baku [1]. This was the last recorded of the Rus' raiding in the Caspian Sea.

Apparently, two major eastern routes along the Dnjepr and Volga rivers were developed by the Vikings for trading purposes. Various written sources and archaeological evidence indicate the Rus' trading activities along the Volga route. For instance, Ibn Khordadbekh writes that Rus' traders sailed not only in the Rum Sea (Black Sea), but also in the Jurjan Sea (Caspian Sea): «Sometimes they carried goods with camels from Jurjan to Bagdad» [7, p. 49]. The Rus' activities in the Caspian region and today's Azerbaijan might be associated with their trading purposes. Makdisi describes Barda as the main city and «Bagdad» of the Caucasus [26, p. 78-79]. Taking into account that the city was a known trading and cultural center of the region during the Middle Ages and one of the key cities located on the Great Silk Road, it would not be difficult to explain the Rus' interest in this city. As mentioned above, the Rus' intention was not to plunder Barda first. This city was furthermore considered as one of the oldest silk-producing centers of the region. This leaves little room for doubt that they were aware of the significance of this center and intended to settle here for trading purposes, especially for silk, which was lightweight and highly valued. Marianne Vedeler suggests that throughout the majority of the Viking Age, some of the most plausible routes for trading silk in Scandinavia went through the Russian waterways and the Baltic [24, p. 81]. In order to acquire more accurate results, additional evidence and investigation is needed.

Norman theory

Based upon medieval sources, the Norman theory could be described as the idea that the Rus' were Scandinavians, and thus that the origin of the name of today's Russia is also of Scandinavian origin. For nearly 300 years, there has been strife around this theory in Russian historiography. During the Stalin period and even after his death, the Norman question was among the most strictly regulated problem areas in Russian history.

The Norman theory was introduced in the first half of the 18^th century by the German historians Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer and Gerhard Friedrich Muller. Bayer, who worked in the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences during 1725-1738, laid the basis for this theory [«O varyag» (On the Varangians); «О proiskhozhdenii Rusi» (On the origins of Rus)]. His work was continued by Gerhard Friedrich Muller, who spent many years on studying Siberian archives and became the author of the monumental The Conquest of Siberia [1842]. Muller encountered constant pressure by anti-Norman scholars [17, p. 283]. In the 1760s another prominent German historian, August Ludwig Schlotzer (1735-1809), studied Old Russian chronicles and the Primary Chronicle in particular.

Normanist historians' views were elaborated in the 19^th century by the Russian historians Nikolai Karamzin and Sergei Solovev, and other scholars such as the Danish Slavicist and linguist Vilhelm Thomsen, who supported the theory. In 1869, Thomsen published the book Den gotiske Sprogklasses Indflydelse pa den finske. En sproghistorisk Undersogelse [`The Relations between Ancient Russia and Scandinavia and the Origin of the Russian State' [Thomsen, 1877]] where he points out the similarity between the name of the east Slavic state Rus' and the Finnish name for Sweden, Ruotsi [5, p. 2],

Right from the beginning, many outstanding historians stood against the `Norman theory'. One of them was Mikhail Lomonosov, who criticized the works of Bayer and Muller and considered the Varyags to be Slavs living around the Baltic Sea. He also argued that the varyags were the descendants of Slavic roxolan tribes and the name «Rus» itself derived from the «Roxolan» [14, p. 22]. There were also other theories about the foundation of the Old Russian state; `Gothic', `Lithuanian', and even `Finnish' theories, among others. For instance, in I860 N.I. Kostomarov published the work called «On the origin of Russia» where he attempted to prove the Lithuanian origin of Varangians [21, p. 17]. However, according to Thomsen, an English scholar R.G. Latham regarded the Goths to be ancestors of the Rus [21, p. 19]. Consequently, the popularity of the Norman theory was revived at the turn of the 20^th century. As late as the 1920s, Normanist influences could still be found in the works of prominent Soviet Russian historians. However, from the 1930s, anti-Normanist views were officially sanctioned as Soviet historiography was anti - Norman [17, p. 286]. The foundation of the Old Russian state by Scandinavians was not acceptable for the national interests of the Soviet Union.

Most books written during the Soviet Period were ideologically biased, therefore the Normanist theory had little influence on Azerbaijani historiography. Consequently, the ethnic origin of the Rus' still remains ambiguous in Azerbaijan due to long-lasting anti-Normanist and Normanist discussions that are still disputed today.

Conclusion. Ideally, research should be free and independent, and not ruled by political, religious, economical or other motives. However, the Norman question was restricted for a long period during the Soviet area. Therefore, the Rus' people are displayed as Slavs in most scientific works of researchers and historians from the former Soviet Union and today's Russia and Azerbaijan. Another difficulty was that, until recently, few Western European scholars have had the opportunity to investigate Scandinavian evidence from the Viking Age in the former Soviet Union. Moreover, the nationalistic feelings have affected the interpretation of such material. A third challenge encountered by scholars who try their hand in this field is related to languages. The materials were written in various languages; for instance, the Primary Chronicle in Old Slavonic, Nizami and Bakikhanov in Persian, Snorri in Old Norse, al-Masudi and others in Arabic. Furthermore, the researches written in various languages in this field are often difficult to interpret. Arguably, this situation calls for international cooperation - a cooperation which should comprise, among other specialities, linguistics, history, and archaeology. And, needless to say: research should be free from bias, even when this is related to national pride.

References

norman rusyn scandinavian

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